


Getting into Hogwarts

by sneirr



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Hogwarts, Squibs, squib at hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 16:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10311941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sneirr/pseuds/sneirr
Summary: Penelope is the daughter of a muggleborn wizard and a pureblood witch; she has a witch sister; and she's a squib. This means she'll never go to Hogwarts. That's just the way it is.But her father won't accept that. This is the story of two parents fighting for justice for their daughter, and a girl who just wants to learn.





	

They had always suspected it, of course. No matter what situation she was in, Penelope had never made anything weird happen. Now, Clara, Clara had made her pudding fly up to the ceiling in a temper tantrum when she was only three years old. She’d got gum in her hair at age five, which her mother had been forced to cut out resulting in a very choppy haircut; she’d woken up the next morning with hair that was even longer than it had been before the gum incident. When she was eight she tripped on a flight of stairs and bounced down like she was a beach ball instead of a very breakable child. No, these kind of things never happened with Penelope. When Clara’s letter came, inviting her to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the girls’ parents were finally forced to admit it to themselves. That letter would never come for Penelope. Their youngest daughter was a squib.

They had a little dinner party when Clara got her letter. She picked her favourite food and they ate in candlelight, the candles floating like the ones at Hogwarts. Clara was already wondering about the kind of wand she’d get, what the books would be like, what House she would be sorted into. Penelope piped in, telling them what she’d want to eat when she got her letter next year. Their parents shared a painful look that the children didn’t notice.

“We’re going to have to talk to her tomorrow, Selena,” John said as he undressed.  
Selena sighed. “Yes,” she said. Another sigh. “We should have talked to her ages ago. I thought she knew.”  
He got into bed and squeezed his wife’s hand. “I’m not sure we ever told them it was even possible.”  
“I hoped… I really hoped she was a late bloomer, you know.”  
He nodded. “I know. But she’s nine now. We have to face it, so she can.”  
“You’re right. And we don’t have to be so glum about it. It’s not the end of the world. She’s healthy, she’s smart, she’ll do great at a muggle school.”  
“I just wish she could go to Hogwarts.”  
She kissed him on the cheek. “I know, dear, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Squibs aren’t allowed at Hogwarts.”  
He lay down and turned off the light.  
“Besides, your parents had a great time at school, didn’t they? And your sister? She’ll be able to help us pick the right school for Penny. She’d like going to the same school as her cousins, wouldn’t she?”  
“Yeah,” John said sleepily. “Not as much as going to the same school as her sister, though.”

The next morning Clara went outside early to play with a friend who’d also be going to Hogwarts this year. As soon as she was gone, John and Selena went up to Penelope’s room. She was playing with her LEGO as they entered.  
“Penny, honey,” Selena said quietly, “could you stop playing for a minute? We have something to talk about.”  
Penelope turned away from her toys. “What is it?”  
John sat down on the floor across from her, carefully pushing aside a few stray LEGO blocks. “Well, you know how sometimes, when your sister is in danger or when she’s emotional, weird things happen?”  
“Yeah,” Penelope said, shrugging, “magic.”  
“Right. And you know that… well, that never really happened with you.”  
Penelope nodded, bit her lips.  
“And, well, you need to know, that usually when someone is a witch, those things do happen. So it’s possible that you’re not a witch. You… might very well be a squib.”  
Penelope looked up at her mother, then back at her father again. “A squib is… like a muggle?”  
“It’s a little different,” Selena said, “but, yes.”  
“Like grandma and grandpa?”  
John nodded.  
“Am I a squib because grandma and grandpa are muggles?”  
Selena laughed a little. “No, dear, there’s no reason for it. I mean, it might be because of their genes. But squibs can come from the most pureblood of families, so it could have come from my side too. In fact, I think it’s probably a bit of both.”  
Penelope nodded. “Okay.”  
John and Selena looked at each other. “Don’t you… have any other questions?” John said.  
Penelope shrugged. “I knew I couldn’t do magic.”  
“But honey,” Selena said delicately, “just yesterday you were talking about going to Hogwarts.”  
“Yes, because I want to go to Hogwarts.”  
“Sweety, squibs can’t go to Hogwarts,” John said, touching her shoulder.  
Penelope frowned. “Why not?”  
“Because Hogwarts is a school for magic. Only people who can do magic are allowed to go.”  
“But,” Penelope said defiantly, her lower lip trembling, “I could learn about magic even if I can’t do it!”  
Selena knelt between the two of them, pulling her daughter into a hug. “Oh, dear, we’re so sorry. That’s just not how it works. But we can let you read Clara’s school books and teach you a little bit ourselves, okay?”  
Penelope started to sob. “But- what- what school will I go to?”  
“We’re going to look into muggle schools,” John said in a soothing voice. “Just like where Lillian and Dave are going.”  
“But I don’t want- to go- there!” Penelope cried. “I want to go to Hogwarts with Clara!”  
“Ssssh, Penny,” Selena whispered, rocking her gently. “I know you want to, but you can’t. You really can’t. I’m really sorry, honey, but we don’t make the rules. Just think for a little while, okay, and we’ll make tea so you can calm down a little. Your grandparents and your aunt Ann all went to muggle schools and you know they all had a wonderful time. Just think about that, okay?”  
“Okay,” Penelope sniffed. She freed herself from her mother’s hug and got up. “I’m going to the bathroom,” she said, wiping her nose.

“Why?” John said suddenly. He was standing at the kitchen counter, pouring water into the teapot.  
“Why what?” Selena said, sitting at the table behind him.  
John turned around and put the teapot down on the table with slightly too much force. A drop of water sloshed out. “Why can’t she go to Hogwarts?”  
“John, you know why. She has no magical ability whatsoever. What could she do at a school where they teach magic?”  
“She’s not a muggle, Selena. She may have little magic ability, but not none. Even if she can’t practice magic, she can learn about the theory of it. She said so herself, that’s all she wants to do! Who are we to deny that from her?”  
“She’s not going to get the letter, John! We can’t just send her to Hogwarts, they’ll send her back!”  
“Yes, I know that. But we can’t just stand by and do nothing, let her be denied an education.”  
“She’ll get a muggle education.”  
“She doesn’t want a muggle education. I don’t see why we couldn’t write a letter to the Headmistress.”  
“Have you ever seen McGonagall break a rule? This is ridiculous, John.”  
“There’s no need to break rules if we can change them. If the school won’t listen, maybe the government will.”  
“Are you serious?”  
“Of course I am. Can you imagine what it was like for me, to move from the muggle world to yours? To suddenly see magic everywhere? We can’t let our daughter miss out on that!”  
Selena sighed. “She’s coming down the stairs right now, so you better stop talking about this. But I suppose a few letters won’t do any harm.”

They wrote to the Headmistress first, to no avail. McGonagall’s answer was polite, but firm, the most important sentiment being, “I’m sorry to say our curriculum is not suited to students with no magical ability.” Selena refrained from saying ‘I told you so’ and helped her husband compose a letter to the Ministry instead. Unfortunately, this had similar results, the only difference being the longer response time and the response being less personal. By now, it was time to buy Clara’s supplies for her first year at Hogwarts. Though Penelope hadn’t gotten over the news that she would not be attending Hogwarts, the prospect of a trip to Diagon Alley filled her with enough excitement to forget about her troubles. She was not the jealous type and could only be happy for her sister.  
After a quick trip through the Floo network, the family arrived in the Leaky Cauldron. Clara led them all through Diagon Alley, reading from her list as they went. For an eleven year old girl she was a very efficient shopper. By noon, all they needed were her school books. They had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron and John announced Clara and Penelope were both allowed to pick one book as an end-of-holidays present. As they ate, the girls discussed what books they were going to buy. Clara had her eyes on the new installment in a comic book series she was reading, and Penelope was asking if an omnibus counted as one book. When they arrived at Flourish and Blotts, John and Selena took Clara’s list to get the school books and the girls disappeared in the crowd looking for the children’s section. It seemed everyone was shopping for Hogwarts supplies. Twenty minutes later the whole family met at the counter. Clara had found the comic book she wanted, but Penelope had apparently strayed from the children’s section and was holding a copy of _Hogwarts: A History_.  
“Er, Pen,” John said as he saw his nine year old carrying the large book, “aren’t you a little young for that?”  
“No,” Penelope said simply.  
“Well, okay then,” John said, “if you’re sure about it…” They paid for all the books and returned home.

A few days later, Selena found her husband sitting at his desk late at night, scribbling on a piece of parchment, now and then flipping the pages in a big book. He didn’t look up as she entered.  
“What are you doing?” she said as she reached his chair. “Is that _Hogwarts: A History_? That’s Penny’s book.”  
He looked up as if she’d startled him. “Oh, er, yeah. I was just trying to find out if there were precedents. For a squib going to Hogwarts.”  
Selena smiled at her husband’s determination. “And? Are there any?”  
“One got as far as the Sorting ceremony once. The Hat obviously noticed.”  
“So that’s another problem.”  
“Well, if the rules changed I don’t think the Sorting Hat would disobey.”  
She nodded. “So what’s that you’re writing down?”  
“I’ve been trying to figure out an alternate curriculum. Professor McGonagall said the curriculum at Hogwarts isn’t suited to students who can’t do magic - so if there was an alternate curriculum, there wouldn’t be a problem.”  
“She didn’t say that.”  
“No, but she’ll have to agree. It’s only fair.” He showed her the piece of parchment. “Look. These are all the compulsory subjects. Charms and Transfiguration are the hardest to adapt because they are very practical and require the use of a wand. That doesn’t mean a squib wouldn’t be able to learn about the theory, though. So let’s say she could sit in at those classes and get alternate assignments. Then, Potions and Herbology are of course very practical as well, but require less wandwork. If Penelope were to be teamed up with another student from her House to do the parts that require magic, she could do almost anything required for those classes. Only individual assignments and exams would have to be adapted. The same thing goes for Defence Against the Dark Arts, though a little more thought might have to be put into methods of defending oneself without magic. Then, in History of Magic and Astronomy no magic is performed at all, so she could follow those classes without any alterations.”  
Selena took the parchment from him and read it quickly. “John,” she whispered, “this is amazing.”  
He smiled proudly.  
“I mean, I don’t know if they’ll accept this, but it is definitely worth a shot. You should write another letter to McGonagall, and I’m going to talk to some of my colleagues at the Ministry. That’ll work better than writing. We have to keep coming at them if we want to do this. They can’t dismiss us if we don’t let them.”  
As she was talking he got up and hugged her tight. “Thank you for coming around.”  
“Well, I mean,” she muttered, “I had to. You’re right, of course. With the way you thought this out, they can’t deny us. And if they do, we have to keep going until they give in.”  
“They’ll give in,” he said, smiling. “I’ve got you on my side and you never lose.”  
“That’s because I don’t enter battles I can’t win.”  
He laughed, then got back in his chair. “Well, I better get to work on the other courses. These are just for the first and second year.”  
“Don’t stay up too late.”

Before they knew it, it was the first of September. The whole family came to King’s Cross to drop Clara off.  
“Write first thing tomorrow morning, all right?” Selena said as she straightened Clara’s dress. “We want to know what House you got sorted into, who your roommates are, whether you liked the feast, everything.”  
“Yes, mum,” Clara said, her voice muffled as her mother hugged her. She pulled away to hug her sister and father before running back to the train, where she’d already put her trunk inside a carriage with her friend and two other first years. They were all waving to their own families from the window. Clara blew them a kiss as the train started to move, steam billowing out from the locomotive. Soon the Hogwarts Express was out of sight. Penelope squeezed her father’s hand. He lifter her up, kissed her, and said, “Who wants to go out for ice cream?”

With Clara gone to Hogwarts, Penelope spent a lot of time in her room, reading. They received regular updates about Clara’s life - she’d been sorted into Slytherin and was already showing a knack for Transfiguration. Penelope sent long letters back with fun drawings and lots of questions. John and Selena tried to talk to her about how she felt about not going to Hogwarts, but she would only shrug and go to her room. They didn’t dare tell her about what they were trying to do, because they were afraid to hurt her even more should they fail. The Ministry was not being very helpful and the school, however understanding of their plight, was only a little more forthcoming. One day, however, close to the end of term, they received a letter from McGonagall saying that she had been talking to the staff about their proposal and they were not unwilling to cooperate. They would start talks with the Ministry about an alternate curriculum, based on John’s ideas.  
At the first day of the Christmas holidays the family woke up early to pick Clara up from King’s Cross. Before they left they told Penelope the big news.  
“Now, love, please don’t get your hopes up too high,” Selena told her, “but I think there is a chance that they’ll let you in. They’re going to talk to the Ministry and try to set up a curriculum suitable for squibs. So even if you’re allowed to go, your lessons are going to be different than everyone else’s. You understand?”  
“Yes, mummy, I understand,” Penelope answered. “I don’t care if I get different classes. I just want to go.” She was smiling more broadly than she ever had.  
Penelope’s happiness was infectious; in the car ride home from the station, the whole family was singing. Clara was almost as excited as Penelope about the news, so much so that their parents felt the need to remind them once more that nothing was settled yet.  
Christmas was a blissful time that year that no family scheduling conflicts or overcooked food could ruin. Neither the confusion of John’s muggle family nor the scepticism of Selena’s magical one could put a damper on Penelope’s hope.  
The thing that _could_ do that, it turned out, was time. After the Christmas holidays everyone went back to their own routines. Clara went back to Hogwarts. John and Selena went back to work, waiting to hear from the school or the Ministry. Occasionally, they wrote letters asking about the progress. The responses would all be roughly the same: they were working on it, there was no use to rush them, these matters take time. With the absence of any news, Penelope was starting to find it hard to believe anything was happening at all.

It took months before, finally, an owl arrived carrying a letter addressed to John and Selena. Inside a plain envelope were two pieces of parchment. One was a letter from the Ministry. It wasn’t a nice one. A big part of it was about the troubles Penelope would face on the job market: even with this adapted Hogwarts education, most jobs in the wizarding world required magic, the letter argued, and would be unavailable to a squib. (“Why don’t they let _us_ worry about that?” John muttered, annoyed, as Selena read the letter to him. “They want to discourage us,” she answered, “because they know we’re right, and McGonagall agrees with us, and that’s all they can do to stop us.”) The rest of the letter revealed how, with great difficulty, the Ministry had worked together with the Hogwarts teachers to create a curriculum suited for squibs. (“Worked together?” Selena added. “Let the teachers do all the work and ask for the Ministry’s approval, more like.”) The second piece of paper contained the curriculum. Upon reading it, John started to pace the room.  
“This is much too limited,” he said. “She could do much more.”  
“They’re saying they can’t expect teachers to teach two different classes at the same time.”  
“It’s not about teaching two classes! She’s just one student!”  
“I know.”  
“She can’t go to school and only follow half of the classes! What will she do the rest of the time? If they don’t want to do anything for her, then at least let her sit in! She’d probably figure more out by herself than she would with this curriculum.”  
“I know.”  
“Don’t you agree with me? Why aren’t you angry?”  
“I am. But we have to be smart about it. We’ll have to write to McGonagall again. I bet this is mostly the Ministry’s doing. They’ve always been fearful of change.”  
“All right. All right. I’m going to get my quill.”  
“No. I’m going to write the letter. You’re much too emotional.”  
“Of course I’m emotional! They’re treating our daughter like she’s less than human!”  
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t be emotional. Just that our letter shouldn’t be. You can read it after I’m done.”

After a quick exchange of letters with Headmistress McGonagall, they were finally back on track. Now that both the parents and the school were putting pressure on the Ministry, things were starting to run in a way that was almost smooth. In the end a compromise was found. The Ministry let the school decide on the exact contents of the curriculum themselves, as long as they would receive reports and Penelope would attain high results. While John was unwilling to agree at first (“How can they ask her to get higher grades than the other students when she’s already behind?”), Selena helped him realise they would not get a better deal and Penelope was smart enough to achieve anything. The summer holidays were now fast approaching and soon Clara was coming home again after a successful first year at Hogwarts. Penelope did not leave her sister’s side for weeks, listening to all the stories she’d already read about in letters and heard multiple times.  
Though the fact that she was going to Hogwarts was now pretty much certain, she would not fully believe it until she got her letter. With every bird she saw in the sky, she thought she saw an owl; with every letter they received she expected a Hogwarts crest; every knock on the door had to be a Ministry official coming to tell her that yes, she _was_ allowed to go.

Then, one morning in early July, she woke up to a tapping on her window. An owl was sitting outside, a letter attached to its paw. Penelope jumped out of bed, opened the window and tried to get the letter off so violently the owl screeched and bit her hand. When she’d finally got the envelope in her hands, she took in a deep breath and opened it. It contained two pieces of paper. As she took out one of them, the first thing she saw was a Hogwarts crest.  
_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._  
Penelope ran out of her room, a smile appearing on her face. “MUM! DAD! I’VE GOT IT! I’VE BEEN ACCEPTED! I GOT THE LETTER!” Soon the whole family was standing around her, giving her hugs and kisses and crying with happiness.

***

The doors opened, revealing the magnificent Great Hall: the long House tables, the staff table at the back, the magical ceiling showing a clear sky full of stars. Ahead of them, a small stool with a dusty old hat.

Penelope felt her heart beating in her throat as her name was called out. Her palms were clammy and cold, her head felt like it was burning up. People were whispering around her. She was remembering what she’d read in _Hogwarts: A History_. The closest a squib had ever gotten to being in Hogwarts was the Sorting Hat.  
She took a deep, shuddering breath and walked towards the stool.  
Sat down.  
The Sorting Hat was placed on her head, sliding down over her eyes so all she could see was darkness.  
_… so… you’re the squib, huh? … well… you’ve got some determination, that’s clear… you wouldn’t be sitting here if you didn’t… but I think, with a mind like yours, you belong in_ RAVENCLAW!  
The Hat was lifted from her head as a smile spread across her lips. Applause rose up from the Ravenclaw table and from a small group at the Slytherin table as well. She ran up to hug her sister there, then sat down at the table of her own House.

Looking up at the enchanted ceiling, she knew, finally, she had made it into Hogwarts.


End file.
